living_monster_of_the_weekfandomcom-20200214-history
Jackie's Journal (6th Excerpt)
(Player: James Beech, GM: Phil, May 5th) February: Chicago, IL I'm not I can't believe I don't believe Oh God. I'm on a train traveling south from Chicago. I've got my backpack and this journal with me and that's good. It's not hard to find a car to yourself at 4 in the morning, which is also good. I need to stay away from people for a while. I found out something about Rollo yesterday. No, that's a lie. I found out something about myself. I was in Chicago with a group of hunter's seeking Vrykrl, the first vampire and the sire of the vampire I helped bring down last year. I asked Tom for a ride and I didn't tell Vegas Elliot that I was going. I wanted a chance to talk to Tom alone, to hear his side of the story and to ask for his help. We talked for a long time on the car ride east. Mostly his story matched Vega Elliot's, but he also told me that he'd been the one who'd been forced to put down Charlie, rather than have Lucifer claim her soul. That shook me, but I appreciated his honesty. I don't think it even occurred to Tom that he could ''have lied about it. How this man ever ended up with Veg Elliot, I will never understand. In Chicago we met up with Luiz and Morgan. I was glad to see them, though they both seemed a little jumpy and they insisted that Tom put on some sort of sigil to keep his guardian angel from finding us. Apparently, there's a more permanent version of the sigil too. I doubt it could entirely protect Ve Elliot from their new boss, but at least it was something. It could've bought me and Tom to come up with a real plan anyway. Also joining us was SM Helena Rogers of 51st Logistics. I'd heard that the 51st sometimes hunted monsters but this was my first time ever seeing one of them in person. We were all discussing how best to deal with the vampire (we had word he was staying in the Empire Hotel) when a message arrived from Vrykrl himself. It was addressed to me and Luiz (the two who'd been on the hunt that destroyed his childer) personally and it invited us all to dine with him that evening. We knew that the old monsters, the talking ones anyway, set a lot of store by hospitality rules, so we figured it was probably worth the risk. As it turned out, Vrykrl was the last one to arrive at the meal, accompanied by two mortal bodyguards. He was scary looking, bald and wizened, and he didn't walk so much as glide. He told us that he'd called us here because he wanted an alliance between us (and as many hunters as we could persuade) and him (and as many monsters as he could persuade). He said he'd found some old letter that talked about a prophecy and this prophecy said that the alliance was needed to prevent the end of the world. I don't know what the others were thinking about it. Personally I was kind of worried by the fact that the alliance wouldn't include ordinary humans, people like my parents and brothers; we'd basically have been giving the the vampires a license to snack on them. But as it happened, we didn't get a real chance to discuss it. Another party of hunters smashed through the window as Vrykrl was getting up to leave and attacked him with a flamethrower. It was absolute chaos. No one knew who's side we were on, but Luiz and Helena started attacking things anyway. Morgan was trying to shield both sides from each other. I lost control of Rollo and he went straight for the thing that scared me most, Vrykrl, who was tearing into the new hunters like they were a buffet. Tom grabbed me and tried to make a break for safety. Unfortunately, this set Rollo off. He leapt at Tom with a roar; I could feel the possessive rage coming off him like heat. Tom, who had never seen Rollo before, drew his angelic sword and the two of them went at it. Luckily, Helena was faster on the uptake and she managed to separate the two of them before either could be killed. By then, we'd entirely lost the initiative however and we barely made it out of the hotel alive. We'd gotten separated from Morgan and Luiz, and Tom was badly injured so he decided to call in, Ariel, his guardian angel. Ariel gave us some divine healing then furiously demanded to know why Tom had disappeared. The poor, honest Tom told him about Luiz and Morgan and Ariel teleported off to the hotel to look for them. Tom tried to warn him that Vrykrl would be waiting there, but it was too late. We were at a hospital getting the rest of our wounds seen to when Gabriel found us. Yes, that's right. The archangel Gabriel (Gabrielle?). She was furious with Tom; apparently, Vrykrl had killed Ariel without apparent effort. She still wanted us to pursue the alliance however. Angels, it seems, are thrilled about the idea of the world ending. Tom, though, was having none of it. He vowed to avenge Ariel's death, even if he had to do it without heaven's help. Reluctantly, Helena agreed to lend him her support. Both of them wanted to keep me out of it, but I was stubborn. Can you imagine what V Elliot would say if I let Tom get killed on my watch? When we caught up with Morgan and Luiz, who'd gone to ground in the same old warehouse we used last time we were in Chicago, the real argument began. Luiz was only to glad to help Tom (they have a pretty cute bromance thing going on) but Morgan was unconvinced. She's some kind of banshee apparently, which I guess explains the necromancy, and she was inclined to trust Vrykrl more than the rest of us. Besides, if Vrykrl's information was good we might need him and his childer to avert the apocalypse. Luiz however, was adamant. His sect had gained a prophecy of their own at the big auction and while he categorically refused to divulge its sacred secrets, he told us that his prophecy required Vrykrl to die for the world to be saved. That was enough to sway Morgan. We summoned Vrykrl to us with a ritual circle. He materialized with a smug little smile on his face, obviously expecting that we would want to talk. I think he was rather taken aback when a huge Aztec with a club sword as tall as himself ran at him screaming. "If we can't protect this world from the likes of you," I told him, "maybe we don't deserve to keep it." Then I let Rollo off the leash. The battle was ferocious. Vrykrl was a powerful sorcerer as well as a master vampire and he lashed out with life-draining hellfire. In response, Tom came at him with his sword blazing with holy fire. The vampire seized Tom and held him aloft on bat like wings before sinking his fangs into Tom's throat. I tried to have Rollo drag them back to earth, but Vrykrl was able to drain Rollo's essence faster than Rollo's ghostly fangs could wound him. Helena called on her military back up and the dropped a frost giant paratrooper straight through the roof. Luiz had to shove me out of the way as chunks of rubble and rebar crashed down around us. Pale and shaking, still hanging limply from Vrykrl's talons, Tom whipped the flaming sword around and cut the vampire's head clean off. Tom dropped like a stone, but Helena managed to catch him before he hit the ground. As we were getting patched up by some of Helena's army medics, call started coming in from hunters all across the country. Apparently, "the first vampire" was more than a just a title. Vampires everywhere were collapsing into dust as their sires and their sires' sires, stretching back all the way to Vrykrl ceased to be. It was during these grim celebrations that Luiz found a moment to speak with me alone. He told me he'd been looking through the lore of his sect for information on Rollo. I'd asked him about this months ago, but I'd almost given up hope that he would find anything useful. He told me...he told that he was certain now, that Rollo was a ''tulpa ''a magical construct, sustained by a human magician's will. At first, I didn't understand. What magician would send his tulpa to guard me or to attack my friends? Then it hit me. Luiz meant ''me. ''I was the magician. Rollo was...no, he is my ''tulpa, my creation. Everything he did, everyone he hurt, it was because on some level I wanted it that way. He is not a monster, or if he is, it's because I am a monster too. I ran away. Rollo didn't know what was happening, just that Luiz had upset me, and he wanted to tear his throat out. He is bigger now than ever before, swollen on Vrykrl's dark magic, and wilder. It took all my will to drag him away with me. I think the others thought that I just needed a moment alone. I think they expected me to come back and get in the car with Tom and drive with him back to Elliot. But how could I? I know there will be a fight when I see them next, because of my sneaking off with Tom. And if there's a fight, Rollo might...no, ''I ''might hurt them. I won't let that happen. Not ever. Not again.